Makharat shrugs. " From my point of view, I had considered myself antagonized by you for suggesting what seemed an insufficient sum for our services, " he says, scratching his chin. " During the war, I was employed by House Deneith. From what I have heard, my manners are quite mild when compared to some that keep in their service, yet they do not dismiss valuable warriors because their feelings are damaged. You have a job that needs to be completed, badly enough that you sent agents to Sharn, hundreds if not thousands of miles away, but now you would dismiss the exceptional services of a certain agent over a simple matter of emotional misconduct. I can only surmise that this research must not mean enough to you that you would jeopardize its retrieval over an insult to you ego. Not to mention, that if this research is important to you, and you have gone to the trouble of bringing a heavily armed party to retrieve it, you would in fact be putting the lives of these other more " upstanding " adventurers at risk, and if they were to die because you refused to send adequate reinforcements... Well, I think that would be much more injurious to your reputation than a few heated words in a closed office... "